The China Quarterly
Volume 211, Issue 3, September 2012
1. Title: The End of the CCP's Resilient Authoritarianism? A Tripartite Assessment
of Shifting Power in China
Authors: Cheng Li
Abstract: This essay challenges the widely held view of the CCP's purported “resilient
authoritarianism,” which asserts that China's one-party political system is able to enhance
the state capacity to govern effectively through institutional adaptations and policy
adjustments. An analysis of the recent and still unfolding Bo Xilai crisis reveals the flaws in
China's political system, including nepotism and patron–client ties in the selection of
leaders, rampant corruption, the growing oligarchic power of state-owned enterprises,
elites' contempt for the law and the potential failure to broker deals between competing
factions in the Party leadership. The essay argues that the CCP's “authoritarian resilience”
is a stagnant system, both conceptually and empirically, because it resists much-needed
democratic changes in the country. The problems of the resilient authoritarianism thesis is
traceable to the monolithic conceptualizing of China – the failure to appreciate seemingly
paradoxical transformative trends in the country, which this essay characterizes as three
paralleled developments, namely, 1) weak leaders, strong factions; 2) weak government,
strong interest groups; and 3) weak Party, strong country. One should not confuse China's
national resilience (in terms of the emerging middle class, new interest group politics, and
dynamic society) with the CCP's capacity and legitimacy to rule the country. The essay
concludes that if the CCP intends to regain the public's confidence and avoid a bottom-up
revolution, it must abandon the notion of “authoritarian resilience” and embrace a
systematic democratic transition with bold steps towards intra-Party elections, judicial
independence and a gradual opening of the mainstream media.
2. Title: Politics and Business Group Formation in China: The Party in Control?
Authors: Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard
Abstract: As a result of economic reform and administrative restructuring in China, a
number of powerful state-owned business groups (“national champions”) have emerged
within sectors of strategic importance. They are headed by a new corporate elite which
enjoys unprecedentedly high levels of remuneration and managerial independence from
government agencies and which derives legitimacy from symbolizing China's economic
rise. However, through the nomenklatura system, the Party controls the appointment of
the CEOs and presidents of the most important of these enterprises and manages a cadre
transfer system which makes it possible to transfer/rotate business leaders to take up
positions in state and Party agencies. In order to conceptualize the coexistence of the
contradicting forces for further enterprise autonomy and continued central control that
characterizes the evolving relationship between business groups and the Party-state, this
paper proposes the notion of integrated fragmentation.
3. Title: Shifting Fiscal Control to Limit Cadre Power in China's Townships and
Villages
Authors: Jean C. Oi, Kim Singer Babiarz, Linxiu Zhang, Renfu Luo and Scott
Rozelle
Abstract: In contrast to its decentralized political economy model of the 1980s, China
took a surprising turn towards recentralization in the mid-1990s. Its fiscal centralization,
starting with the 1994 tax reforms, is well known, but political recentralization also has
been under way to control cadres directly at township and village levels. Little-noticed
measures designed to tighten administrative and fiscal regulation began to be
implemented during approximately the same period in the mid-1990s. Over time these
measures have succeeded in hollowing out the power of village and township cadres. The
increasing reach of the central state is the direct result of explicit state policies that have
taken power over economic resources that were once under the control of village and
township cadres. This article examines the broad shift towards recentralization by
examining the fiscal and political consequences of these policies at the village and
township levels. Evidence for this shift comes from new survey data on village-level
investments, administrative regulation and fiscal oversight, as well as township-level fiscal
revenues, expenditures, transfers (between counties and townships) and public-goods
investments.
4. Title: Counting Cadres: A Comparative View of the Size of China's Public
Employment
Authors: Yuen Yuen Ang
Abstract: Is China's public bureaucracy overstaffed? To answer this basic question
objectively, one needs to define public employment in the contemporary Chinese context;
survey data sources available to measure public employment; and finally, compare
China's public employment size with that of other countries. Using a variety of new
sources, this article performs all three tasks. It also goes further to clarify the variance
between bianzhi (formally established posts) and actual staffing size, as well as other
permutations of the bianzhi system, especially chaobian (exceeding the bianzhi). A key
finding is that China's net public employment per capita is not as large as often perceived;
quite the contrary, it is one-third below the international mean. However, it is clear that the
actual number of employees in the party-state bureaucracy has grown – and is still
growing – steadily since reforms, despite repeated downsizing campaigns. Such
expansion has been heavily concentrated at the sub-provincial levels and among shiye
danwei (extra-bureaucracies).
5. Title: Shifting Boundaries between the State and Society: Village Cadres as New
Activists in Collective Petition
Authors: Juan Wang
Abstract: Despite the central government's efforts in reducing fiscal burdens on peasants
through fiscal reforms in the early 2000s, collective petitions in rural China remain.
Complementary to the arbitrary and weak government explanations of state–society
conflict, this article reveals the role of village cadres as activists in collective petition.
Drawn from extensive fieldwork, I argue that by reducing local government revenues and
recentralizing fiscal autonomy to the county level, central fiscal reforms have
unintentionally induced a new force of resistance: village cadres. Being disenfranchised
from previous privileges, village cadres are now allies rather than adversaries of peasant
petitions. This article advances existing literature on China's contentious politics in two
ways. First, it recognizes a new group of activists whose savoir-faire improves peasant
knowledge of the state capacity in containing state–society conflict. Second, it proposes a
dynamic understanding of contentious politics by highlighting the shifting boundaries
between the state and society.
6. Title: Structural Changes in Chinese Corruption
Authors: Kilkon Ko and Cuifen Weng
Abstract: Given the rapid economic and administrative evolution that China has
undergone during the last three decades, it is likely that corruption in China has been
directly and indirectly affected by the changes that have taken place. However, the
existing literature pays little attention to the impact of such changes on Chinese corruption,
while emphasizing the seriousness of corruption. This article reviews how the major
causes of Chinese corruption in the reform era have been alleviated in the 2000s. Some
of the recent changes include the progress of the market economy, the advent of a
merit-based civil service system, improvement of the budgeting and auditing system,
fiscal recentralization and better monitoring of local governments' activities, and progress
in anti-corruption regulation and enforcement. Consequently, we hypothesize that
changes in the causes of corruption have led to structural changes in Chinese corruption.
Our empirical analyses reveal that administrative reform has resulted in a decrease in the
number of corruption cases related to the internal administrative process (embezzlement
and misappropriation of public funds). At the same time, we also observe the aggravation
of bribery. This suggests that Chinese corruption has made a transition from being an
administrative issue to being a private–public transactional problem.
7. Title: Welfare, Wealth and Poverty in Urban China: The and Its Differential
Disbursement
Authors: Dorothy J. Solinger and Yiyang Hu
Abstract: In the broader social science literature, most studies of social protection
investigate welfare in democracies, and at the national level, and typically assume that
welfare is given in order to influence voting. This paper, to the contrary, considers social
assistance in authoritarian China at the urban level. Its findings are compatible with an
explanation that there are two dissimilar logics influencing the distributional decisions of
lower-level administrators. That is, there appear to be two modes of social policy
implementation, which vary with the fiscal capacity of a given city, as indicated by its
average wage: Wealthier cities seem to prefer to push off the streets those viewed as
unsuited to a modern city, therefore allocating a substantial proportion of their social
assistance funds to them, in order to entice them to stay at home. On the other hand,
poorer places seem to permit such people to work outside, in the hope that they will thus
be better able to support themselves, thereby saving the city money. A data set from
China's Ministry of Civil Affairs was used.
8. Title: Local Energy Efficiency Policy Implementation in China: Bridging the Gap
between National Priorities and Local Interests
Authors: Genia Kostka and William Hobbs
Abstract: This paper analyses Chinese sub-national governments’ implementation
strategies to meet national energy efficiency targets in the 11th Five-Year Plan
(2006–2010). Previous research has focused on the ways governance practices and
decision-making structures shape implementation outcomes, yet very little attention has
been given to what strategies local leaders actually employ to bridge national priorities
with local interests. To illustrate how local leaders work politically, this paper highlights
specific implementation methods officials use to strengthen formal incentives and create
effective informal incentives to comply with energy efficiency mandates. The analysis is
drawn from 53 interviews conducted in June and July of 2010 in Shanxi, a major
coal-producing and energy-intensive province. Findings suggest that local government
leaders conform to national directives by “bundling” the energy efficiency policy with
policies of more pressing local importance or by “bundling” their energy efficiency
objectives with the interests of groups with significant political influence. Ultimately,
sub-national government officials frame policies in ways that give them legitimacy at the
local level.
9. Title: Charge Me if You Can: Assessing Political Biases in Vote-buying Verdicts in
Democratic Taiwan (2000–2010)
Authors: Chung-li Wu
Abstract: While the judicial system is an important part of any given political regime, other
than in a few Western countries, it has received comparatively little attention. This study
employs vote-buying litigation as a litmus test to inquire whether or not the judiciary in
Taiwan is politically biased in its judgments. Vote buying has long marred Taiwan's
elections and the general public does not seem to trust the judicial system to be
independent of political influences. This study examines the impact of political variables
(including partisanship, whether candidates are elected or not, and the type of election) on
court decisions in vote-buying litigation between 2000 and 2010. The article looks at these
decisions at three levels: district courts, high courts, and the Supreme Court. The
empirical findings indicate that the effects of political factors are considerably less an
influence than expected on trial outcomes.
10. Title: Autoethnographic Expression and Cultural Translation in Tian Yage's
Short Stories
Authors: Liang-ya Liou
Abstract: This article explores how three short stories set in 1980s Taiwan by the
Taiwanese aboriginal writer Tian Yage (Tuobasi Tamapima) can be read as
autoethnographic fiction as well as modern fiction, portraying contemporary Taiwanese
aboriginal society caught between indigenous folkways and colonial modernity, and how
the narrators of the stories tackle cultural translation. I begin with a discussion of Sun
Ta-chuan's caution in 1991 as the Taiwan Aboriginal Movement was evolving into the
Taiwan Aboriginal Cultural Revivalist Movement. After analysing anthropology's
relationship with aborigines and imperialism, I apply Mary Louise Pratt's concept of
autoethnography to the aboriginal activists' ethnographic studies and personal narratives.
I argue that, prior to the Taiwan Aboriginal Cultural Revivalist Movement, Tian sought to
construct an aboriginal cultural identity vis-à-vis the metropolis and to envision a cultural
revival within the indigenous community, while he also explored the dilemmas and
difficulties that arose from these. In the last section, I apply Homi K. Bhabha's theory of
the untranslatable in cultural translation to further examine the language, the narrative
voice and the form of both autoethnographic fiction and modern fiction in Tian's stories. I
argue that writing Chinese-language modern fiction is a tacit recognition on Tian's part of
the legacy of colonial modernity, but the purpose is to manoeuvre for a rethinking of the
Taiwanese modern subject. As the narrative voice of his stories is one of an aboriginal
speaking as a subject rather than an object, speaking with the backdrop of the aboriginal
village as the locus of indigenous traditions vis-à-vis the dominant society, Tian is implicitly
demanding aboriginal rights and a reconsideration of the Taiwanese modern subject as
well as a shift in the paradigm of historiography on Taiwan.
11. Title: Health Care Reform and Patients' Trust in Physicians in Urban Beijing
Authors: Waikeung Tam
Abstract: The Chinese health care system has experienced profound changes in recent
decades, including the retrenchment of government financial support. These changes and
their subsequent adverse impacts have prompted the Chinese media and some
academics to suggest that patients have a relatively low level of trust in physicians in
China today. As the first step in exploring the state of patient trust in physicians in public
hospitals in urban China, and its determinants, we conducted a survey of 434 patients
from 26 public hospitals in urban Beijing between December 2009 and January 2010.
Conducted by the Horizon Research Group, our survey asked the patient respondents
how they viewed the physicians they were currently seeing, focusing on the following
dimensions of trust: physician agency, technical competence, interpersonal competence,
and information provided by physicians. Our survey results show a relatively high level of
patients' trust in their physicians. Moreover, our in-patient respondents reported a higher
level of trust than out-patient respondents with regard to physician agency, interpersonal
competence and information provision. Regression analyses also find that patients'
self-reported health status, the level of public hospitals from which they received treatment,
the duration of their illness, and the frequency of exposure to negative media reports of
physicians and hospitals are important determinants of patients' trust in physicians.
以下是书评:
12. Title: Collective Resistance in China: Why Popular Protests Succeed or Fail
Authors: Jonathan Sullivan
Abstract: The article reviews the book “Collective Resistance in China: Why Popular
Protests Succeed or Fail” by Yongshun Cai.
13. Title: Social Protest and Contentious Authoritarianism in China
Authors: Yongshun Cai
Abstract: The article reviews the book “Social Protest and Contentious Authoritarianism
in China” by Xi Chen.
14. Title: How China Became Capitalist
Authors: Richard Sanders
Abstract: The article reviews the book “How China Became Capitalist” by Ronald Coase
and Ning Wang.
15. Title: Making Capitalism in Rural China
Authors: Jonathan Unger
Abstract: The article reviews the book “Making Capitalism in Rural China.” by Michael
Webber.
16. Title: Double Paradox: Rapid Growth and Rising Corruption in China
Authors: Ting Gong
Abstract: The article reviews the book “Double Paradox: Rapid Growth and Rising
Corruption in China” by Andrew Wedeman.
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17. Title: Poverty and Development in China: Alternative Approaches to Poverty
Assessment
Authors: Chris Bramall
Abstract: The article reviews the book “Poverty and Development in China: Alternative
Approaches to Poverty Assessment” by Caizhen Lu.
18. Title: Past and Present in China's Foreign Policy: From “Tribute System” to
“Peaceful Rise”
Authors: Emilian Kavalski
Abstract: The article reviews the book “Past and Present in China's Foreign Policy: From
‘Tribute System’ to ‘Peaceful Rise’.” by John E. Wills, Jr.
19. Title: The China Threat: Memories, Myths, and Realities in the 1950s
Authors: Michael Schaller
Abstract: The article reviews the book “The China Threat: Memories, Myths, and
Realities in the 1950s” by Nancy Bernkopf Tucker.
20. Title: Sudan Looks East: China, India and the Politics of Asian Alternatives
Authors: Lucy Corkin
Abstract: The article reviews the book “Sudan Looks East: China, India and the Politics of
Asian Alternatives” by Daniel Large and Luke A. Patey
21. Title: Tiger Girls: Women and Enterprises in the People's Republic of China
Authors: Leung Wing-Fai
Abstract: The article reviews the book “Tiger Girls: Women and Enterprises in the
People's Republic of China” by Minglu Chen.
22. Title: Young Chinese in Urban China
Authors: Paul Clark
Abstract: The article reviews the book “Young Chinese in Urban China” by Alex Cockain.
23. Title: HIV/AIDS in China: The Economic and Social Determinants
Authors: Anna Hayes
Abstract: The article reviews the book “HIV/AIDS in China: The Economic and Social
Determinants” by Dylan Sutherland and Jennifer Y. J. Hsu.
24. Title: Betting on Biotech: Innovation and the Limits of Asia's Developmental
State
Authors: Richard P. Suttmeier
Abstract: The article reviews the book “Betting on Biotech: Innovation and the Limits of
Asia's Developmental State” by Joseph Wong.
25. Title: Gaming, Governance and Public Policy in Macao
Authors: Sonny Lo
Abstract: The article reviews the book “Gaming, Governance and Public Policy in Macao”
by Newman M. K. Lam and Ian Scott.
26. Title: The Chinese Diaspora in South-east Asia: The Overseas Chinese in
Indochina
Authors: Elizabeth Sinn
Abstract: The article reviews the book “The Chinese Diaspora in South-east Asia: The
Overseas Chinese in Indochina” by Tracy C. Barrett.
27. Title: Guilty of Indigence: The Urban Poor in China, 1900–1953
Authors: Hanchao Lu
Abstract: The article reviews the book “Guilty of Indigence: The Urban Poor in China,
1900–1953” by Janet Y. Chen.
28. Title: A New History of Christianity in China
Authors: Lawrence Braschi
Abstract: The article reviews the book “A New History of Christianity in China” by Daniel
H. Bays.
29. Title: Burning Money: The Material Spirit of the Chinese Lifeworld
Authors: T. H. Barrett
Abstract: The article reviews the book “Burning Money: The Material Spirit of the Chinese
Lifeworld” by C. Fred Blake.
30. Title: A Story of Ruins: Presence and Absence in Chinese Art and Visual Culture
Authors: Xavier Ortells-Nicolau
Abstract: The article reviews the book “A Story of Ruins: Presence and Absence in
Chinese Art and Visual Culture” by Wu Hung.
31. Title: The Wobbling Pivot: China Since 1800
Authors: R. Kent Guy
Abstract: The article reviews the book “The Wobbling Pivot: China Since 1800” by
Pamela Kyle Crossley.
32. Title: Chinese Women's Cinema: Transnational Contexts
Authors: Stephanie Hemelryk Donald
Abstract: The article reviews the book “Chinese Women's Cinema: Transnational
Contexts” by Lingzhen Wang.